Movie theater

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A typical multiplex (AMC Promenade 16 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, United States).

The Snowdon Theatre, Montreal, Quebec

A movie theater in Australia

A movie theater, movie theatre or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ("movies" or "films").

Most movie theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. The movie is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium. Some movie theaters are now equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print.

[edit] Spelling and alternative terms

Outside of North America, most English-speaking countries use the term cinema (pronounced /ˈsɪnəmɑ/, but formerly spelt "kinema" and pronounced /ˈkɪnəmɑ/). In these areas the term "theatre" is usually restricted to live-performance venues.

In the United States, the customary spelling is "theater", but the National Association of Theatre Owners uses the spelling "theatre" to refer to a movie theater.

Colloquial expressions, mostly used for cinemas collectively, include the silver screen, the big screen (contrasted with the "small screen" of television) and (in the United Kingdom) the pictures, the flicks, and the flea pit (which derives from the long-standing belief that the seats were infested with fleas as they were so uncomfortable to sit on, resulting in frequent fidgeting).

A "screening room" usually refers to a small facility for viewing movies, often for the use of those involved in the production of motion pictures, or in large private residences.

[edit] History

Many older movie theaters, such as the River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Texas, have been restored and play arthouse movies; newer multiplexes in the areas with restored theaters show first run films.

[edit] Before 1900

Noting that the first public exhibition of projected motion pictures in the United States was at Koster & Bials Music Hall on 34th Street in New York City on April 23, 1896, the first "theater" in the US dedicated exclusively to showing motion pictures was Vitascope Hall, established on Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana June 26, 1896: it was converted from a vacant store. In the basement of the new Ellicott Square Building, Main Street, Buffalo, New York, Mitchell Mark and his brother Moe Mark added what they called Edison’s Vitascope Theater (entered through Edisonia Hall), which they opened to the general public on Monday, 19 October 1896, in collaboration with Rudolph Wagner, who had moved to Buffalo after spending several years working at the Edison laboratories: this 72 seat, plush theater was designed from scratch solely to show motion pictures. Terry Ramseye, in his book, A Million and One Nights [p. 276], notes that this “was one of the earliest permanently located and exclusively motion-picture exhibitions.” According to the Buffalo News (Wednesday, November 2, 1932), "There were seats for about 90 persons (sic) and the admission was three cents. Feeble, flickering films of travel scenes were the usual fare." (The true number of seats was 72.)

This November 7, 1897 ad shows the actual programming of Vitascope Theater, one of the first motion picture theaters specially built for that purpose. In its first year, 200,000 people attended. It was in Buffalo, New York. However, during the rest of this period, between 1891-1900, films did not achieve much popularity.^[1]

[edit] 1900-1919

The first permanent structure designed for screening of movies in the state of California was Tally's Electric Theater, completed in 1902 in Los Angeles. The Great Train Robbery (1903), which was 12 minutes in length, would also give the film industry a boost.^[2] In 1905, Pittsburgh movie theater owners Harry Davis and John Harris also established the first of what would become a popular form of movie theaters spread throughout the country, which where five-cent nickelodeon movie In 1906, Montreal opened one of the first movie theatres in the world. theaters.^[3] In 1912, the Picture House, in Clevedon, England, opened with a charity film performance to raise funds for the victims of the Titanic disaster, and remains (as the Curzon Community Cinema) in business as of August], 2007 as the oldest continually-operating movie theater in the world. The 1913 opening of the Regent Theater in New York City signaled a new respectability for the medium, and the start of the two-decade heyday of American cinema design. The million dollar Mark Strand Theater at 47th Street and Broadway in New York City opened in 1914 by Mitchell Mark was the archetypical movie palace. The ornate Al Ringling Theater was the very first "Movie Palace" it was built in Baraboo, WI by Al Ringling, one of the founders of the Ringling Bros. Circus for the then incredible sum of $100,000.00. In 1915, the movie The Birth of A Nation would also pave way for feature films.^[4] By 1915, feature films were so successful that the five cent ticket admission prices would expand to ten cents, hence ending the era of nickelodeon movie theaters.^[5] Later, Los Angeles promoter Sid Grauman continued the trend of theatre-as-destination with his ornate "Million Dollar Theatre", using the same design firm as Ringling (the MDT was the first to signify its primary use for motion pictures with the "theatre" spelling), and opened on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles in 1918.

[edit] 1920 to 1980

In the next ten years, as movie revenues exploded, independent promoters and movie studios (who owned their own proprietary chains until an antitrust ruling in 1948) raced to build the most lavish, elaborate, attractive theatres. These forms morphed into a unique architectural genre—the movie palace—a unique and extreme architectural genre which boasted a lucurious design, a giant screen, and, beginning in 1953, stereophonic sound. The movie chains were also among the first industries to install air conditioning systems which gave the theatres an additional lure of comfort in the summer period.

Several movie studios achieved vertical integration by acquiring and constructing theatre chains. The so-called "Big Five" theatre chains of the 1920s and 1930s were all owned by studios: Paramount, Warner, Loews (which owned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Fox, and RKO. All were broken up as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 1948 United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case.

In the 1970s, porn theatres started to have rampant ubiquity in some areas. However, the introduction of the low-cost VHS video system for home televisions has decommissioned many porno cinemas as well as many 'second-run' theatres.

[edit] After 1980

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

People can pay to watch movies at home, through cable television or streamed from the Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org../../../../articles/i/n/t/Internet.html#Streaming_media: pay-per-view (PPV) and video on demand (VOD). This may have contributed to an industry wide slump in the late 1980s, not to mention the decline of the 'Dollar Cinema' (where first-run films are pulled from circulation). The theater industry responded by building larger auditoriums with stadium seating layouts, installing more screens (to allow for more variety and more show times), upgrading sound systems and installing more amenities and higher-quality concessions. The growing popularity of high-definition television sets, along with HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc players has probably also contibuted to the decline in cinema attendance. On February 17, 2009; all US television stations will be broadcast in the digital format. This could also affect US movie theaters.

[edit] 3D

Sometimes a 3-D film is shown. Visitors borrow or keep special glasses to watch it. Depending on the system used, these are e.g. polarized glasses.

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Three Dimensional films use a series of lines that simulate depth and using 3-D glasses with red and blue lenses, polarized, and other types. 3-D glasses connect the lines and make the image appear to "pop-out" at the viewer and even follow the viewer when he/she moves so viewers relatively see the same image. Most 3-D films are used in amusement parks and even "4-D" techniques are used when certain effects such as spraying of water, movement of seats, and other effects are used to simulate actions seen on the screen. 3-D films started around the 1990s and hit the industry hard enough to become popular.

[edit] Design

Interior of a Hoyts movie theater in Australia, with stadium seating, acoustic wall hangings, wall-mounted speakers, and cup holders.

Traditionally a movie theater, like a stage theater, consists of a single auditorium with rows of comfortable seats, as well as a lobby area containing a box office for buying tickets, a counter and/or self-service facilities for buying snacks and drinks, and washrooms. Stage theaters are sometimes converted into movie theatres by placing a screen in front of the stage and adding a projector; this conversion may be permanent, or temporary for purposes such as showing arthouse fare to an audience accustomed to plays. The familiar characteristics of relatively low admission and open seating can be traced to Samuel Roxy Rothafel, an early movie theater impresario. Many of these early theatres contain a balcony, an elevated platform above the theater's rearmost seats. The rearward main floor "loge" seats were sometimes larger, softer, and more widely spaced and sold for a higher price.

In conventional low pitch viewing floors the preferred seating arrangement is to use staggered rows. While a less efficient use of floor space this allows a somewhat improved sight line between the patrons seated in the next row toward the screen, provided they do not lean toward one another.

"Stadium seating" is employed in many modern theaters, giving patrons a clear sight line over the heads of those seated in front of them. Originally employed for flat-screen IMAX viewing (which has a very tall screen) this feature has proven popular with theatre patrons. The first stadium-style movie theater in the United States was the AMC Grand in Dallas, Texas, which opened in 1995.^{[citation needed]}

Rows of seats are divided by one or more aisles so that there are seldom more than 20 seats in a row. This allows easier access to seating, as the space between rows is very narrow. Depending on the angle of rake of the seats, the aisles have steps. In older theaters, aisle lights were often built into the end seats of each row to help patrons find their way in the dark. Since the advent of stadium theaters with stepped aisles, each step in the aisles may be outlined with small lights to prevent patrons from tripping in the darkened theater.

[edit] Multiplexes and megaplexes

North America's first two-screen theatre, The Elgin Theatre was created in 1957 by Nat Taylor in Ottawa, Ontario, when he expanded the 20 year old facility. Taylor is credited as inventor of the multiplex or cineplex, and later founded the Cineplex Odeon Corporation, opening the 18-screen Toronto Eaton Centre Cineplex, the world's largest at the time.[1]

Stanley Durwood of American Multi-Cinema (now AMC Theatres) pioneered what would become the multiplex in 1963 after realizing that he could operate several attached auditoriums with the same staff needed for one through careful management of the start times for each movie.

Since that time multiple-screen theatres have become the norm, and many existing venues have been retrofitted so that they have multiple auditoriums. A single lobby is shared among them. In most markets, nearly all single-screen theatres have gone out of business. Because of the late development of multiplexes, the term "cinema" or "theater" may refer either the whole complex or a single auditorium, and sometimes "screen" is used to refer to an auditorium.

A popular movie may be shown on multiple screens at the same multiplex, which reduces the choice of movies but offers more choice of viewing times or a greater number of seats to accommodate patrons. Two or three screens may be created by dividing up an existing cinema (as Durwood did with his Roxy in 1964), but newly built multiplexes usually have at least six to eight screens, and often as many as twelve, fourteen or even sixteen. In these large modern theaters, an electronic display in the ticket hall often shows a list of movies with starting time, auditorium number, admission rating, and whether it is sold out. Sometimes the number of remaining available seats is shown as well. At the entrance of each auditorium there may be a one-line electronic display with the title of the movie. After the movie has started, it can display the title and time of the next scheduled showing.

Although definitions vary, a large multiplex with 20 or more screens is usually called a megaplex. The first megaplex is generally considered to be the Kinepolis in Brussels, Belgium, which opened in 1988 with 25 screens and a seating capacity of 7,500. The first megaplex in the United States was Studio 28 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which reopened in 1988 with 20 screens and a seating capacity of 6,000. [2]

[edit] IMAX

IMAX is a system using film with more than 10 times the frame size of a 35mm film to produce image quality far superior to conventional film. IMAX theaters use an oversized screen as well as special projectors. The first permanent IMAX theater was at Ontario Place in Toronto, Ontario.

[edit] Drive-in

A drive-in movie theatre is basically an outdoor parking area with a screen at one end and a projection booth at the other. Moviegoers drive into the parking spaces which are sometimes sloped upwards at the front to give a more direct view of the movie screen. Movies are usually viewed through the car windscreen (windshield) although some people prefer to sit on the hood of the car. Sound is either provided through portable loudspeakers located by each parking space, or is broadcast on an FM radio frequency, to be played through the car's stereo system. Because of their outdoor nature, drive-ins usually only operate seasonally, and after sunset. Drive-in movie theatres are mainly found in the United States, where they were especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Once numbering in the thousands, about 400 remain in the U.S. today. In some cases, multiplex or megaplex theatres were built on the sites of former drive-in theatres.

[edit] Other venues

Some outdoor movie theatres are just cleared areas where the audience sits upon chairs or blankets and watch the movie on a temporary screen, or even the wall of a convenient building. There is a nice outdoor cinema along the seafront in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

In the late 1990s, student organizations in universities and schools started to show movies in auditoriums equipped with multimedia projectors. Before the ubiquity of classic and modern films in DVD and VHS formats, student groups at large universities often sponsored screenings of films on 16 mm projectors in lecture halls as a way to raise money. Many small colleges also had student-run film groups that projected 16 mm films on a regular basis to students.

Some alternative methods of showing movies have been popular in the past. In the 1980s the introduction of VHS cassettes made possible video-salons, small rooms where visitors viewed the film on a large TV. These establishments were especially popular in the Soviet Union, where official distribution companies were slow to adapt to changing demand, and so movie theatres could not show popular Hollywood and Asian films.

Movies are also commonly shown on airliners in flight, using large screens in each cabin or smaller screens for each group of rows or each individual seat; the airline company sometimes charges a fee for the headphones needed to hear the movie's sound. Movies are sometimes also shown on trains, such as the Auto Train.

The smallest purpose-built cinema in operation is the Cinema dei Piccoli in Villa Borghese, Rome, Italy. The Cinema dei Piccoli was built by Alfredo Annibali in 1934 in the park of Villa Borghese, and today covers an area of 71.52 sq. m (769.83 sq. ft). Originally called the Topolino Cinema (after Mickey Mouse), the movie theatre used a Path-Baby 9.5 mm movie projector, bed sheets for the screen and played 78's for background music. Restored in 1991, the cinema now has 63 seats, a 5 x 2.5 m (16.4 x 8.2 ft) screen, stereo sound and air conditioning. It is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records.

[edit] Programming

Movie theaters may be classified by the type of movies or when they are shown:

• First-run theater: A theater that runs primarily mainstream film fare from the major film companies and distributors, during the initial new release period of each film.
• Second-run or discount theater: A theater that runs films that have already shown in the first-run theaters and presented at a lower ticket price. (These are sometimes known as dollar theaters or "Cheap Seats".)
• Repertoire/repertory theater or arthouse: A theater that presents more alternative and art films as well as second-run and classic films (often known as an "Independent Cinema" in the UK).
• An adult theater or sex theater specializes in showing pornographic movies.
• IMAX theaters can show conventional movies, but the major benefits of the IMAX system are only available when showing movies filmed using it. While a few mainstream feature films have been produced in IMAX, IMAX movies are often documentaries featuring spectacular natural scenery, and may be limited to the 45-minute length of a single reel of IMAX film.

[edit] Presentation

Usually an admission is for one feature film. Sometimes two feature films are sold as one admission (double feature), with a break in between. Separate admission for a short subject is rare; it is either an extra before a feature film or part of a series of short subjects sold as one admission (this mainly occurs at film festivals). (See also anthology film).

Historically, many movie theatres presented a number of shorter items in addition to the feature film. This might include a newsreel, live-action comedy short films, documentary short films, musical short films, and/or cartoon shorts (many classic cartoons series such as the Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse shorts were created for this purpose). Some theatres ran on continuous showings, where the same items would repeat throughout the day, with patrons arriving and departing at any time rather than having distinct entrance and exit cycles. Newsreels gradually became obsolete by the 1960s with the rise of television news, and most material now shown prior to a feature film is of a commercial or promotional nature.

A typical modern theatre presents commercial advertising shorts, then movie trailers, and then the feature film. Advertised start times are usually for the entire program or session, not the feature itself.^[6]

Thus people who want to avoid commercials might want to enter later, and those who want to avoid the trailers, again later. This is easiest and causes the least inconvenience when it is not crowded, and/or one is not very choosy about where one wants to sit. If one has a ticket for a specific seat (see below) one is formally assured of that, but it is still inconvenient and disturbing to find and claim it during the commercials and trailers, unless it is near an aisle.

Some movie theaters have some kind of break during the presentation. There may also be a break between the introductory material and the feature. Some countries such as the Netherlands have a tradition of incorporating an intermission in regular feature presentations, though many theaters have now abandoned that tradition ^[7], while in North America this is very rare, and usually limited to special circumstances involving extremely long movies.

During the closing credits many people leave, some stay till the end. Usually the lights are switched on after the credits, sometimes already during them. Some films show additional scenes while the credits are rolling. In multiplexes, theater chains often feature a continuous PowerPoint-like presentation of slides between showings featuring a loop of movie trivia, promotional material for the theater chains (such as encouraging patrons to purchase gift certificates or buy concessions), or advertising for local and national businesses.

Some theatres, if projection is well-equipped, have the ability to interlock, which is where one film print runs through two projectors at the same time. Once the film is threaded and loaded in the first projector, the projectionist threads the film on multiple rings that surround the nearest wall that will designate to the projector that is closer, but both projectors must be programmed in similar format to allow both projectors to run the single print at the same time. This practice is most common with blockbuster movies in the summer and sometimes winter. Pacific Theatres is one theater circuit that does this.

[edit] Live broadcasting to movie theaters

Sometimes movie theaters provide digital projection of a live broadcast of a performance or other event. For example, there are regular live broadcasts to movie theaters of Metropolitan Opera performanceshttp://en.wikipedia.org../../../../articles/m/e/t/Metropolitan_Opera_386b.html#Met_broadcasts_to_movie_theaters, with additionally limited repeat showings.

[edit] Pricing and admission

In order to obtain admission to a movie theater, the prospective theater-goer must usually purchase a ticket, which may be for an arbitrary seat ("open" or "free" seating, first-come, first-served) or for a specific one.^{[citation needed]} Movie theaters in North America generally have open seating. Movie theaters in Europe can have free seating or numbered seating. Also some theatres in Mexico offer numbered seating, in particular, Cinepolis VIP. In the case of numbered seating systems the attendee can often pick seats from a screen; sometimes the attendee cannot see the screen and has to make a choice based on what the cashier tells about the still available seats.

In the case of free seats, already seated customers may be forced by staff to move one or more places for the benefit of an arriving couple or group wanting to sit together.

The price of a ticket may be discounted during off-peak times e.g. for matinées, and higher at busy times, typically evenings and/or weekends. In Canada, when this practice is used, it is traditional to offer the lower prices for Tuesday for all showings, one of the slowest days of the week in the movie theatre business, which has led to the nickname "cheap Tuesday." Almost all movie theaters employ economic price discrimination: tickets for youth, students, and seniors are typically cheaper. Large theater chains, such as AMC Theaters, also own smaller theaters that show "second runs" of popular films, at reduced ticket prices.

Some movie theaters and chains sell passes for unlimited entrance. Some examples:

• "Pathé Unlimited Card" (PUC) for the chain of 12 multi- and megaplex theatres of Pathé in the Netherlands (100 screens), for €18/month; there are 15,000 pass holders (April 2006)
• "Groninger Filmkaart" for €20/month for the two movie theaters MustSee Euroborg (10 screens) and Images (3 screens) in Groningen
• "Unlimited Card" for the chain of movie theaters of Cineworld (formerly UGC) in the UK and Ireland, for £13.99/month, or £11.99 excluding those in London's West End.
• Carte "Le Pass" for the chain of movie theatres of Pathé/Gaumont in Paris, for 20 euro/month; ditto for each of a number of other French cities (same price, even though the pass is valid for much fewer screens)
• "UGC Illimité" passes for all UGC movie theaters in France, for 18 euro/month, and an entrance fee of 30 euro.
• "UGC Unlimited" passes for the four UGC movie theaters in Belgium, for 15 euro/month
• "SF Movie Passport" pass for all the movies shown in SF Group theaters in Thailand, valid for a month for one person and one showing per movie, at the price of 800 baht or eqv USD 20

Note that in Thailand there is the restriction of one viewing per movie, while in the Netherlands one can see any movie as many times as one wants.

[edit] Luxury Screens

Cinemas in city centres are increasingly offering luxury seating with services like complimentary refills of soft drinks and popcorn, a bar, reclining leather seats and service bells. The Vue Cinema chain is a good example of a large-scale offering such a service, called "Gold Class".

[edit] Age restrictions

Admission to a movie may also be restricted by a motion picture rating system. According to such systems, children or teenagers below a certain age may be forbidden access to theaters showing certain movies, or only admitted when accompanied by a parent or other adult. In some jurisdictions a rating may legally impose this on movie theaters. Furthermore, where movie theaters do not have this legal obligation, they may enforce restrictions on their own.

Accordingly, a movie theater may either not be allowed to program an unrated film, or voluntarily refrain from that. In the US many mainstream movie theaters do not even show movies rated NC-17 ("No one 17 and under admitted"). Often, instead, an edited R-rated version ("Restricted. Persons under 17 are not admitted unless accompanied by parent or adult guardian.") is shown.^{[dubious – discuss]}

[edit] Ticket check; movie hopping

In some movie theater complexes, the theaters are arranged such that tickets are checked at the entrance into the entire plaza, rather than before each theater. This has led to movie hopping, also called theater hopping and plexing, the practice of buying a ticket for one film and illicitly attending additional showings within the complex without buying the required tickets. Younger patrons may also use this practice to enter auditoriums showing age-restricted movies.

At a theater with a sold-out show there is often an additional ticket check, to make sure that everybody with a ticket for that show can find a seat.

The lobby may be before or after the ticket check, see below.

[edit] Revenue

Movie studios/film distributors in the U.S. traditionally drive hard bargains entitling them to as much as 70% of the gross ticket revenue during the first week (and then the balance changes in 10% increments per week from there).^[8] See also box office.

[edit] Movie theater culture

Movie theaters are associated with dating, popcorn and expensive treats. It is rather common that people throw and leave their garbage on the floor in a movie theater, as opposed to the cultural standard of cleaning up after oneself.

[edit] Intimacy

Sometimes couples go to a movie theater for the additional reason that it provides the possibility of some physical intimacy, where the dark provides some privacy (with additional privacy in the back-row), i.e., the same amount of intimacy is a lesser form of public display of affection. This applies in particular for young people who still live with their parents, and these parents tend to monitor and/or forbid certain activities, and in the case of other social or even legal problems with public displays of affection. Compared with being together in a room without other people, it may also be reassuring for one or both of the couple (and for parents) that the intimacy is necessarily limited.

Arm rests pose a hindrance to intimacy for some people. Some theaters have love seats: seats for two without an armrest in the middle. The most modern theaters have movable armrests throughout the theater that when down can hold a food container as well as act as an armrest or partition between the seats and when up allow closer contact between the couple. Some theaters such as the Parkway in Oakland, California have sofas for greater comfort.^[9]

[edit] Lobby, food and drinks

Movie theaters usually sell various snack foods and drinks on concession stands. There may be a counter, self-service where one pays at the counter, and/or coin-operated machines. Sometimes the area of sale is more like a self-service shop than a lobby (it is not suitable for consuming the goods), and one pays at the check-out between the shop and the area with the screens.

The facilities for buying snacks and drinks often represent the theater's primary source of profit since most of the ticket revenue goes to the film distributor (and onward to the movie studio). Some movie theaters forbid eating and drinking inside the viewing room (restricting such activities to the lobby), while others encourage it by fitting cup holders on the arm rests (on the front side of the arm rests of one's own chair, or the back side of the arm rests in front) and selling large portions of popcorn; also in that case bringing one's own food and drinks may be forbidden. Concessions is currently a huge area of expansion with many companies in the U.S. offering a wider range of snacks, including hot dogs and nachos. The noise of people eating, including the opening of wrappers, is frowned upon by some moviegoers.

Many theaters have embraced the "brew and view" concept, serving alcoholic beverages, in addition to snacks and popcorn. Some movie theaters such as the Alamo Drafthouse offer full restaurant service at one's seat, though this is not as widespread. McMenamins is a chain of restaurant/brewpub establishments in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington, many of which have full movie theaters.

The lobby may be before or after the ticket check. If it is after, sometimes entrance to the lobby is restricted to a specific time, such as half an hour before the movie starts.

It is quite common for the lobby to include an arcade game area.

Sometimes movie going teenagers throw various foodstuffs — most notably popcorn — at each other, though sometimes at other moviegoers. This is frowned upon by management. In Ireland, mobile phones have also been banned in all cinemas, with some going to the extreme of installing equipment that blocks mobile phone signals.

[edit] Business practice controversies

• Advertising - Many filmgoers complain about commercial advertising shorts, arguing that their absence would be one of the main advantages of going to a movie theater. Other critics such as Roger Ebert have expressed concerns that these advertisements, plus an excessive number of movie trailers, could lead to pressure to restrict the preferred length of the feature films themselves to facilitate playing schedules. So far, the theatre companies have typically been highly resistant to these complaints, citing the need for the supplementary income. Some chains like Famous Players and AMC Theatres have compromised with the commercials restricted to being shown before the scheduled start time for the trailers and the feature film. Individual theaters within a chain also sometimes adopt this policy.

• Presentation - Another major recent concern is that the dramatic improvements in stereo sound systems have led to cinemas playing the soundtracks of presented films at unacceptably high volume levels. Usually, the trailers are presented at a very high sound level, presumably to overcome the sounds of a busy crowd. The sound is not adjusted downward for a sparsely occupied theater, and some patrons employ earplugs for the trailer period. Volume is normally adjusted based on the projectionist's judgment of a high or low attendance. In response to audience complaints, a manager at a Cinemark theater in California explained that the studios set trailer sound levels, not the theater, but the validity of this claim was not authenticated.

• Piracy - In recent years cinemas have started to show warnings, before the movie starts, against using cameras and camcorders during the movie. These warnings threaten customers with being removed from the cinema and arrested by the police. This example was shown at cinemas in the United Kingdom:

You are not permitted to use any camera or recording equipment in this cinema. This will be treated as an attempt to breach copyright. Any person doing so can be ejected and such articles may be confiscated by the police. We ask the audience to be vigilant against any such activity and report any matters arousing suspicion to cinema staff. Thank you.

Some theaters (including those with IMAX stadiums) have detectors at the doors to pick up recording smugglers.

• Crowd control - As movie theaters have grown into multiplexes and megaplexes, crowd control has become a major concern. An overcrowded megaplex can be rather unpleasant, and in an emergency can be extremely dangerous. Therefore, all major theater chains have implemented crowd control measures. The most well-known measure is the ubiquitous holdout line which prevents ticket holders for the next showing of that weekend's most popular movie from entering the building until their particular auditorium has been cleared out and cleaned. Since the 1980s, some theater chains (especially AMC Theatres) have developed a policy of co-locating their theaters in shopping centers (as opposed to the old practice of building stand-alone theaters). They deliberately build lobbies and corridors that cannot hold as many people as the auditoriums, thus making holdout lines necessary. In turn, ticket holders may be enticed to shop or eat while stuck outside in the holdout line.

[edit] Movie theatres and chains

Main article: List of movie theaters and cinema chains

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Cinemas

• Category:Cinema and movie theatre chains
• Category:Cinemas and movie theaters
• Film
• Film screening
• Fictional film
• Home cinema
• Inflatable movie screen
• List of film formats
• Motion Picture Association of America
• Movie palace
• Nickelodeon movie theater
• Surround sound and THX

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Cinema Treasures - Database of movie theaters around the world
• Theatre Historical Society of America - official site
• Archives of Ontario Various historical photos of movie theatres in Ontario (Canada), along with brief history.
• The Open-Air Cinemas of Greece
• Australian Theatres at the National Film and Sound Archive